(The Associated Press circulated the following on June 19.)
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — Four empty coal cars from a CSX train derailed in Johnstown, damaging a business and destroying a pickup truck, but no one was injured, officials said.
Freight cars from the train headed from Rockwood to Johnstown damaged a building that houses the Budget Transmission Quality Tube and Hose business shortly before noon Thursday.
“We’re just lucky we didn’t get hurt,” said employee Matt Rietscha, whose truck lay in a twisted mass between one of the freight cars and a fence.
Johnstown police officer Erin Kabler was headed to an emergency call elsewhere when he saw the derailment.
“I saw the front wheels (of one train car) hopping and they popped off the track,” Kabler told the Tribune-Democrat in Johnstown. “My first concern was, ‘Is there anybody in that garage bay _ and what’s in these cars?'”
When the train finally stopped, both engines and the first two freight cars remained on the track. The car that hit Budget Transmission was stuck in the gravel and dirt, and one car dug grooves in the pavement and stopped just feet short of the building.
“The trains come by here all the time, but you could hear it getting louder and louder,” Rietscha said of the crash, which shut down traffic in the area until 9:30 p.m.
CSX spokesman Bob Sullivan said the cause of the accident is still unknown. The company will investigate and will contact Budget Transmission about the damage to the building, he said.